“His curve was a mess,” said. “He adjusted and threw the fastball and kept at his spots.

“I thought he did a good job of that. He also had knuckleball that he could have played around with more, especially with the wind. It started to bounce.”

Both Kauffman and Forreston coach Kyle Zick thought the Cardinals fended off pitches well to keep Lizer on the mound a bit longer, though the senior still managed to get batters out more often than not.

“We hung in there for a lot of counts,” Zick said. “We fouled some balls off and there were things we did well.”

“I wish we were better at that,” Kauffman said. “I wish we could foul more pitches off and work pitchers deep into the count.”

Hitting inconsistency

Dakota has at times looked strong at the plate. But in two of the team’s last three games, the Indians have struggled to find consistency.

The Indians scored five runs in the first inning of Monday’s game, but only registered one hit the rest of the game.

“Toward the end I think we just got complacent,” Lizer said. “We just said ‘oh, we’re up five’ and we were just laying back a little bit.”

Dakota also had a hard time hitting Aquin pitcher Anthony Townsend in a 2-1 win that ended on a debatable hit or two-run error.

Kauffman mentioned there won’t be much time to work on hitting, or anything in the next couple of weeks due to a loaded schedule.